The Enhanced Version Of 'Crackdown' On The Xbox One X Looks Much Better Than The Original

Jumping into 'Crackdown' enhanced for the Xbox One X.Credit: Digital Foundry

Crackdown is one of a handful of Xbox 360 games that were recently enhanced for the Xbox One X. For all of these games, the enhancement is limited to increasing resolution to native 4K. Digital Foundry took a look to see how it turned out.

Resolution and graphics

Xbox increases the resolution of Xbox 360 games by creating a 3 x 3 grid of nine renders of the game at its original resolution and then collapsing the grid to make one higher resolution image. Crackdown originally rendered at 720p (1280 x 720). Collapsing the grid produces a horizontal resolution of 3840 (3 * 1280) and a vertical resolution of 2160 (3 * 720). Presto! Instant native 4K (3840 x 2160). (If some technical terms are unfamiliar, check out this guide.)

This technique is carried out without touching the game’s original code so what you get is the original 360 game with all its strengths and weaknesses rendered at a much higher resolution. Needless to say, Crackdown looks much better as a result of the resolution increase.

Resolution comparison between the Xbox One X and the Xbox 360.Credit: Digital Foundry

The increase in resolution also produces better texture filtering as can be seen by comparing the guy's white hair in the picture above. There’s also a slight improvement in how the edges of debris look when you blow things up. Crackdown rendered debris in an explosion at 512 x 286 which is approximately 40% of native 720p. The enhanced version triples this to 864p (1536 x 864).

864p is a long way from native 4K, but it’s better than the original game’s base resolution of 720p. You may not notice the reduction in resolution because the debris are flying around the screen when you blow stuff up. On the other hand, you blow a lot of stuff up in Crackdown, so you may see it and once you do, it can be hard to ignore.

Building a massive explosion to stress test the CPU.Credit: Digital Foundry

Performance

Crackdown’s frame rate was capped at 30 fps on the 360 and because the original code has not been modified, that’s the best you can expect from the One X. And that’s what you get – for the most part. The exceptions come when there are large explosions that place a heavy demand on the CPU’s ability to process object physics. Digital Foundry piled up stacks of cars and then blew them up to demonstrate what happens. As you can see in the above picture, frame rate tanks. When you’re not blowing stuff up, frame rate on the One X holds steady at 30 fps.

What about the Graphics and Performance modes for 360 games that you can toggle between on the One X? In a previous article I explained why playing these games in Performance mode on the One X is usually a bad idea. Crackdown is an exception where Performance mode can give you a small benefit. When the CPU is stressed, frame rates in Graphics mode can fall 1 to 3 fps below Performance mode. It’s a very small difference and each player will have to decide whether picking up these few fps during high stress scenes is worth playing the entire game at 720p instead of native 4K.

'Crackdown' enhanced for the Xbox One X.Credit: Digital Foundry

Conclusion

The story about Crackdown running on the One X is easily summarized

The game looks much better in native 4K than in the original 720p.

Performance in Graphics mode locks on 30 fps unless the CPU is under high stress.

Performance mode provides a small benefit in frame rate over Graphics mode in high stress scenes at the cost of trading native 4K for 720p throughout the game.

If you go out of your way to create massive explosions, frame rate will tank briefly.

Crackdown looks surprisingly good on the One X when you consider it’s an 11-year-old game. If you like running amok and grand-scale destruction in an urban environment, and don’t mind graphics assets that are more than a decade old, Crackdown on the Xbox One X is a treat,

If you're interested in the Xbox One X, here are some other article you might enjoy.

I’m a cognitive scientist, retired professor, musician, gamer, and avid cyclist with a B.A in History, an M.S. in History and Philosophy of Science, and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology. In addition to papers in professional scientific journals, I’ve written the book Nutriti...